Responding to the growing use of online technologies for instruction at MSU, the Department of Information Technology holds an annual awards program, generously funded by AT&T, to both recognize and encourage best practices in the use of technology to enhance teaching and learning.

In addition to other projects, students in the Master of Arts in Educational Technology, or MAET, course are asked to tackle a “wicked problem” in education using design thinking and the power of inquiry. The final task is to share a critical evaluation and possible solutions for the problem through the creation of a multimodal presentation.

The main objectives are to help individuals from all walks of life think about how technology can be used in a myriad of ways to address a range of teaching and education-related problems, said Liz Owens Boltz, one of the coordinators of the MAET program.

“It asks students to be thoughtful and purposeful with technology integration,” she said. “It’s not just about the technological tools themselves, but how you’re using the tools.”

The current installation of CEP 812 was originally developed around 2014, incorporating research from scholars in the College of Education and across the university. It was created with the intention of showing foundations for educational technology, but allowing room for the students and the course itself to develop.

Students work in small groups throughout the course, interacting and collaborating with peers through teleconferencing tools such as Skype or Zoom and on Twitter. They also write blog posts to reflect on their practice, further emphasizing the public nature of their learning in the MAET program.

“Many of our students are educators, but they often come with a breadth of different experiences,” Owens Boltz said. “The diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise that students and instructors have brought to this course have been instrumental in making it such a success.”

Contributors to the course over its history include current and former MSU scholars, alumni and friends of the program.